Speaking outside court, Miss Sheedy said she would never forget what happened to her.

"I have waited for nearly four years for this day and it is hard to express how much it means to me," the former convent school head girl said.

"The road to recovery has been emotionally and physically hard.

"There were times when I thought I would never get better.

"The fact that Bellfield has been found guilty means more than I can say."

'Barbaric crimes'

Miss McDonnell's uncle, Shane McDonnell, said: "Five years have passed since the night our beloved Marsha was so cruelly taken from this world, a girl that only had love in her heart, brutally slain by a man who only has hate in his.

"For her family, life will never quite be the same ever again, the pain and hurt that we carry will always be there.

"It is a sentence with no remission. We welcome the news today that the man responsible for these barbaric crimes has finally been proved to be guilty, after nearly five months of having to endure the cowardly charade of innocence put forward by the defence, we at last get to see Levi Bellfield for what he truly is."

Det Ch Insp Colin Sutton, from the Metropolitan Police, said Bellfield was a clever, cunning, arrogant and very dangerous man.

"He clearly is a dangerous man and clearly south west London in general will be a much safer place, particularly for women.

"This wicked series of attacks ended in 2004 when Levi Bellfield was arrested."

Miss Delagrange's parents, Jean Francois and Dominique, said they had attended the trial as their "way of being there in memory of our daughter".

'Short tragedy'

The couple said Bellfield had shown an "unbelievable level of arrogance" and had winked and mouthed obscenities to family members during the trial.

Mr Delagrange said: "This court trial has at least allowed us to understand the final page of her very short existence.

"Today we have arrived at the last chapter of this very short tragedy of Amelie's life."

The jury of seven women and five men was unable to reach verdicts on two other charges.

These were the kidnap and false imprisonment of Anna-Maria Rennie, 17, and the attempted murder of hairdresser Irma Dragoshi, 33.

The Crown Prosecution Service said it would not seek a retrial on the two counts.

The relatives of Miss Delagrange, Miss McDonnell and Miss Sheedy held hands with supporters at the back of the court when the verdicts were read out.